Version: 11.2+Starting with openSUSE 11.2, a live upgrade from the prior version is officially supported. This allows to perform a complete operating system upgrade in place, without reloading everything from scratch.

Summary

This page explains how to run a tool or a series of command line steps to upgrade your system to the latest version of openSUSE.

Doing a live upgrade has advantages as well as disadvantages.

Among the advantages are:

You only download the packages that need to be upgraded, thus using a lot less bandwidth.

During the upgrade, you can still use your workstation (even if this is not recommended); the only downtime will be the reboot after the upgrade.

You do not have to use a DVD, nor do you need a DVD writer. (You also could boot from the net or a USB key, and install the rest from the net...)

The disadvantages:

If, for any reason, the upgrade is interrupted (e.g. power outages, network disconnect) and the process cannot continue, you could be left with a broken system (that depends on where the process stopped of course).

If you have multiple systems to upgrade, you use bandwidth each time, so it might be better to download an ISO image.

It does not do all of the cleanup and maintenance that an offline DVD Upgrade does.

Warning: Do not skip a release when upgrading! Example: do not upgrade from 13.1 to 42.1. Instead, from 13.1 upgrade to 13.2, then from 13.2 upgrade to 42.1.

Other possibility:
Offline upgrade, a.k.a. traditional or DVD upgrade. For more information, read offline upgrade. This upgrade method is safer and more versatile. Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, use the offline upgrade method.

Supported scenarios

Update from 32-bit openSUSE to Leap is not supported. Leap is 64-bit only. If your hardware has x86_64 support, you can upgrade 13.2 to 64-bit first. See 32-bit to 64-bit upgrade.

On the AArch64 architecture (64-bit ARM), upgrading from Leap 42.1 to Leap 42.2 is not supported. Please do a fresh installation on those systems.

Be aware that, in principle, this upgrade process is considered “best effort” only. This means that due to some third-party packages and the myriad of possible configurations, it is possible for some combinations to cause failure upon upgrade.

Also, remember these important rules:

All important data must be backed up prior to beginning the upgrade process.

You must update your system with the latest updates for the release you are currently running before running zypper dup.

You must only zypper dup to the next release. Hopping over a release, e.g., going from 13.1 -> 42.1, is not supported.

Making sure you are up to date

The supported starting point is the last openSUSE release with all current updates applied. This does not include arbitrary openSUSE Build Service repositories you may have added. We recommend that you disable all OBS repositories first, perform the upgrade, then reenable them. The following steps show you how to update your openSUSE distribution to the current packages before upgrading to the next version.

Release Notes

You can find all listed importantant steps for an upgrade and informations about changed packages in the Release Notes

3. Move /var/cache to a separate subvolume

Note: If the root file system is not Btrfs or you're upgrading from 42.2, then skip this section and continue to step 4.

/var/cache contains a lot of very volatile data, such as the Zypper cache with RPM packages in different versions for each update. As a result of storing data that is mostly redundant but highly volatile, the amount of disk space a snapshot occupies can increase very fast. For solving this problem move /var/cache to a separate subvolume:

Find out the device name of the root file system:

df /

Identify the parent subvolume of all the other subvolumes. For openSUSE 13.2 installations, this is a subvolume named with @:

btrfs subvolume list / | grep '@'

If the output of this command is empty, you do not have a subvolume named with @. In that case, you may be able to proceed with subvolume ID 5 which was used in older versions of openSUSE.

Mount the specific subvolume to a temporary mount point:

mount /dev/<root-device> -o subvol=@ /mnt

If you don't have a @ in the subvolume name, mount subvolume ID 5 instead:

mount /dev/<root-device> -o subvolid=5 /mnt

/mnt/var/cache can already exist and could be the same directory as /var/cache. To avoid data loss, move it:

mv /mnt/var/cache /mnt/var/cache.old

Create a new subvolume:

btrfs subvol create /mnt/var/cache

If there is now a directory /var/cache.old, move it to the new location:

mv /var/cache.old/* /mnt/var/cache

If that is not the case, instead do:

mv /var/cache/* /mnt/var/cache/

After moving (optionally) remove /mnt/var/cache.old:

rm -rf /mnt/var/cache.old

Unmount the subvolume from the temporary mount point:

umount /mnt

Add an entry to /etc/fstab for the new /var/cache subvolume. Use an existing subvolume as a template to copy from. Make sure to leave the UUID untouched (this is the root file system's UUID) and change the subvolume name and its mount point consistently to /var/cache.

Mount the new subvolume as specified in /etc/fstab:

mount /var/cache

4. Update system to the latest packages

Graphical tool

Running the Upgrade

The following steps will show you how to upgrade your openSUSE distribution to the following release (eg. 13.2 -> 42.1). As already mentioned, any third party or OBS repositories can cause troubles, so it is recommended to disable or remove them before proceeding.

Before you begin

Make sure that you read the list of annoying bugs for the new version you are going to install. Some of them could affect the update process. Usually, alongside the bug is listed some solution or workaround, so make sure that you are prepared for upcoming problems.

Also, read the Release Notes which list changes and glitches in the new release

Command line

As an example, we will be showing upgrade from Leap 42.2 to 42.3 here:

Take a look at all repos you have

zypper lr

and remove all third party/OBS repos you no longer need

# zypper rr <alias>

Change all remaining repo URLs to the new version of the distribution (needs to be run as root)

# cp -Rv /etc/zypp/repos.d /etc/zypp/repos.d.Old

(for a backup copy), then (replace the version numbers as necessary):

# sed -i 's/42\.2/42.3/g' /etc/zypp/repos.d/*

Refresh new repositories (you might be asked to accept new gpg key)

# zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys ref

If you haven't removed third party/OBS repositories you may encounter some errors as these repositories may not exist yet or they may have different unguessable URL. It is always recommended to remove them and add their newer version after upgrade.

Now execute the full distribution upgrade.

WarningIt is strongly recommended that you run the upgrade outside the X-window graphical mode.

Thus it is recommended you run the command from either runlevel 3 (text + network), or a virtual console.

Unfortunately many times the WIFI connection is managed/available only in runlevel 5, so a virtual text console may be best while staying logged into the graphical console behind the scenes.

People had their X session stopped/crashed during the upgrade, causing the upgrade to abort, which in turn left the system in an inconsistent state.

To remain in runlevel 5, but use a "virtual console", type control-alt-F1 (as an example).

# zypper dup

With the above command, zypper will download all required packages and install them in heaps. To download all packages in advance, use:

# zypper dup --download-in-advance

If you did the above dist upgrade before the official release date (eg.2016-11-16 for 42.2), you may have installed a Release Candidate (RC) or a milestone version and will need to repeat the final zypper dup step now to receive the final release.

Search for updated openSUSE Leap 42.3 compatible third-party repositories that you used before — if you still need them — and add them.

WarningUse with caution. Using third-party repositories may break your system or cause instabilities.

zypper addrepo --name <name> <url> <alias>

Or, if you have URL of a .repo file:

# zypper ar <url.repo>

After upgrade, reboot is recommended to start the new kernel and newer versions of everything.

In addition, zypper up can be run from time to time to ensure you have the latest available packages from the various repositories that you have enabled. YOU (Yast Online Update) only addresses security updates from the official repositories.